$5 Thrift Shop "Pollock" Draws Media Attention

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It started with a trip to a thrift store; it could end with a multimillion-dollar windfall.

Teri Horton, a 73-year-old former long-haul truck driver, has discovered what could be a large-scale drip painting by Jackson Pollock, The Daily Telegraph reports. She bought the piece in 1991 at a second-hand shop for $5; it could be worth up to $50 million.

Her story unfolds in the documentary film, “Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?,” opening in New York next week. And Horton herself will make an appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” tomorrow to tell the tale.

Horton said she bought what she thought was a cheap gift for a friend, but when the friend couldn’t fit the artwork through the door of her trailer, Horton tried to hawk it in a garage sale. However, an art teacher passing by pointed out that it looked exactly like a Jackson Pollock. “I said, ‘Who the f--- is Jackson Pollock?,’” Horton recalled.

Since then, a group of experts, including forensic scientist Peter Paul Biro, have studied the work. Biro was able to match a fingerprint on the painting to one on a paint can used Pollock, and research has shown that paint on the floor of Pollock’s studio matched that on the canvas in question. Others, however, including Thomas Hoving, former director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, still contend it is a fake.

A collector from Dubai recently offered Horton $9 million for the piece, but she turned it down.

The Daily Telegraph: Jackson Pollock for $5 - true or false?